title: Mobile sailing robot for automatic estimation of fish density and monitoring water quality.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The paper presents the methodology and the algorithm developed to analyze sonar images focused on fish detection in small water bodies and measurement of their parameters: volume, depth and the GPS location. The final results are stored in a table and can be exported to any numerical environment for further analysis.
  
  
  METHODS
  The measurement method for estimating the number of fish using the automatic robot is based on a sequential calculation of the number of occurrences of fish on the set trajectory. The data analysis from the sonar concerned automatic recognition of fish using the methods of image analysis and processing.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Image analysis algorithm, a mobile robot together with its control in the 2.4 GHz band and full cryptographic communication with the data archiving station was developed as part of this study. For the three model fish ponds where verification of fish catches was carried out (548, 171 and 226 individuals), the measurement error for the described method was not exceeded 8%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Created robot together with the developed software has features for remote work also in the variety of harsh weather and environmental conditions, is fully automated and can be remotely controlled using Internet. Designed system enables fish spatial location (GPS coordinates and the depth). The purpose of the robot is a non-invasive measurement of the number of fish in water reservoirs and a measurement of the quality of drinking water consumed by humans, especially in situations where local sources of pollution could have a significant impact on the quality of water collected for water treatment for people and when getting to these places is difficult. The systematically used robot equipped with the appropriate sensors, can be part of early warning system against the pollution of water used by humans (drinking water, natural swimming pools) which can be dangerous for their health.
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Biomedical Systems, Institute of Computer Science, University of Silesia, Będzińska 39, 41-200, Sosnowiec, Poland. robert.koprowski@us.edu.pl
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Koprowski
authors.forename: Zygmunt
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wróbel
authors.forename: Agnieszka
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kleszcz
authors.forename: Sławomir
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wilczyński
authors.forename: Andrzej
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Woźnica
authors.forename: Bartosz
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Łozowski
authors.forename: Maciej
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pilarczyk
authors.forename: Jerzy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Karczewski
authors.forename: Paweł
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Migula
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D001331:Automation; D055598:Chemical Phenomena; D004777:Environment; D005399:Fishes; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D011156:Population Density; D012371:Robotics; D013016:Sound; D060753:Water Quality